A whopping 4.5 lakh street lights in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits will be replaced with the energy efficient LED bulbs in the next six months.
Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, a public energy services company, will execute the work on behalf of the GHMC. Describing it as the world’s largest such project, Managing Director Saurabh Kumar said that the work will begin on July 1. Apart from the core feature of energy efficiency, the LED bulbs to be installed will also be ‘smart’.
The GHMC will not invest initially on the ₹273-crore project, which includes maintenance, addressing the faults and monitoring for seven years. The civic body, whose power bill for the streetlights is expected to reduce from existing ₹220 crore to ₹90 crore, would pay around ₹70 crore every year to the EESL during the seven-year contract period. Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Mr. Kumar said that apart from the streetlights project, the EESL was keen on promoting the use of LED bulbs and tubelights as well as energy-efficient fans in Telangana.
To facilitate distribution of energy-efficient appliances, the company had tied up with self help groups and the Mee Seva Centres. Under the UJALA (Unnat Jeevan by Affordable LED’s and Appliances for All) scheme, LED bulbs are sold at ₹ 70 each, 20 W LED tube lights at ₹ 230 apiece while the price of an energy-efficient fan is ₹ 1,150. The fans distributed by the EESL are of 50 watts, which are 30% more efficient than fans available in the market.
The appliances are available at all the municipal revenue centres of the GHMC and 72 ULBs’ Commissioners’ offices. The EESL aimed at distributing five lakh LED tubelights, one lakh energy-efficient fans and one crore LED bulbs in the State. The company provides free of cost replacement of the LED bulbs and tubelights for all technical faults for three years as well as 2.5 years technical warranty for energy-efficient fans.
While inaugurating the initiative of LED bulbs sales by the Self Help Groups women on Wednesday, Mayor B. Rammohan said that women were playing a major role in the GHMC activities.
For the project, the GHMC is planning to involve 4.5 lakh Self Help Groups listed. Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy said that women from the Self Help Groups secured loans to the tune of ₹ 248 crore during the year 2015-16 and ₹281 crore during the financial year 2016-17.
